"The last cycling adventure of Laurens ten Dam and Thomas Dekker went anything but smoothly. During a training ride for last week’s gravel competition Unbound in the United States, the two former professionals were arrested for ‘indecent behavior’.
About 24 hours after Dekker arrived in the United States, the cyclists were handcuffed in two police cars and driven to prison in Oklahoma. Ten Dam says this in his podcast Live Slow Ride Hard. The riders wanted to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant after a long training session, and decided to freshen up in the parking lot with the help of some bottled water.
“After Thomas had rinsed me off, I quickly changed my pants between the car doors,†says Ten Dam. “But while I do that, I hear someone shouting very angrily on the other side.†The man on the other side was not pleased that Dekker was rinsing himself ‘in his bare ass’. A little later, in the restaurant, Ten Dam and Dekker were taken by the police because they had been seen naked in the parking lot.
Based on the accusation from the angry man across the street, both men were taken to jail in handcuffs. “The indictment stated that we sprayed each other with water bottles like two gay cyclists,†says Ten Dam. The riders had to pay a $185 bond and it later turned out that they no longer had to appear in court. However, they did not leave the prison until ten hours after the arrest."
Made me think about the warnings you see at Ironman events against nudity punished by DSQ. In Dutch local tris I’ve quite often seen people changing clothes, women and men mixed, and no one said anything.
I find it surprising they were taken to prison just like that.
Skip jail, booking, court etc and go straight to prison? Seems odd to skip the entire judicial process america is founded on
To go around the world from country to country abd assume the norms, laws abd customs are the same, or behave in the way you “normally” do in your home country and have no awareness of what is appropriate/legal or normal in the new country is either ignorant, naive or just plain old entitlement.
Probably. In the same paragraph they call it “jail” which would be the correct name?
More like “holding cell in a police station”.
Anyway, this is absolutely hilarious. Certainly a culture clash. Nudity is a lot more common and accepted in Europe, and I imagine you’re also more likely to get booked for swinging your wiener around in the Midwest than you would be in San Francisco.
To go around the world from country to country abd assume the norms, laws abd customs are the same, or behave in the way you “normally” do in your home country and have no awareness of what is appropriate/legal or normal in the new country is either ignorant, naive or just plain old entitlement.
This is very common in bike racing. Who hasn’t changed out of your sweaty kit in or behind the car. At the track, we would change right there trackside. This was just Okie idiots.
But it’s illegal.
I get it, I have changed/rinsed in many parking lots, especially when I’m in my campervan, but public nudity is illegal in most places in the US so I wrap a towel or keep underwear on.
It is not “okie idiots” it is entitled individuals who assume their way is the correct way.
All around the world laws and rules are different, as a traveler it is on you to understand them and not violate them.
… public nudity is illegal in most places in the US so I wrap a towel or keep underwear on.
All around the world laws and rules are different, as a traveler it is on you to understand them and not violate them.
Yeah, there’s that, of course
I mean - as a surfer - you kinda have to be careful, when, where, and how much you show when you get out of your wetsuit; these guys should have shown much more awareness, certainly
Still, I’m sure there was a fair amount of overreaction from the witnesses & The Law, as well
But it’s illegal.
I get it, I have changed/rinsed in many parking lots, especially when I’m in my campervan, but public nudity is illegal in most places in the US so I wrap a towel or keep underwear on.
It is not “okie idiots” it is entitled individuals who assume their way is the correct way.
All around the world laws and rules are different, as a traveler it is on you to understand them and not violate them.
Correct, including idiots taking guns or bullets to Turks and Cacaos. Totally equivalent.
I mean very different in scale, but same concept.
It is on the traveler to follow and obey local laws.
I don’t agree with Russian laws on Marijuana, but was Brittany Greiner in the wrong for flying with weed. Yes
I don’t agree with some parts of sharia law, but will I adhere to local customs in Saudi Arabia. Yes.
It’s just an very egotistical to assume you can do anything anywhere you want
It’s just an very egotistical to assume you can do anything anywhere you want
Usually, it’s the Americans doing it, so this is a little different
When traveling, I often temper my decisions with a dose of “What would Bourdain do?” He may have gotten a little wild here & there, now & then, but he was (almost) always respectful and not (terribly) reckless
.
Reminds me of a time I was driving back to Ontario with a friend after racing Barry Roubaix in Michigan around 2010. We pulled over to the side of the road for a pee break, absolute middle of no where, very little traffic. Sure enough, police car rolls up… I can’t make this shit up, officer got out of the cruiser with a McDonalds cup in hand and said, “Please tell me you guys aren’t doing what I think you’re doing”… we didn’t know it was illegal to pee road side, and the McDonalds cup made him seem pretty casual, so neither of us knew how to respond. A few seconds later something came through about a domestic dispute on his radio and he said, “It’s your lucky day gentlemen, you were about to become registered sex offenders”. He got back in his cruiser and drove away.
To this day I wonder if what he said can actually happen or if he was just trying to scare a couple kids (we were early 20’s at the time).
Guess the guy calling the police was jealous of their fitness. Why not just yell at them to stop if it really bothered him so much? Would he have called if it were two women??
It is not like they did it in full public they did it discretely between cars
“The indictment stated that we sprayed each other with water bottles like two gay cyclistsâ€
Am I the only one who finds this hysterical?
As if the people of that state don’t hate cyclists enough, now we’re infecting the youths with gay orgies in the parking lot of their favorite Mexican restaurants. Tight clothes, foreigners, homosexuality, cycling, physical fitness… that is everything middle Americans hate - they’re lucky they don’t have a bullet in the head.
“The indictment stated that we sprayed each other with water bottles like two gay cyclistsâ€
Am I the only one who finds this hysterical?
Hell no.
Apparently it wasn’t about nudity (especially if the view of the sensitive parts was obstructed by open car doors) but about the Kansas citizen’s awareness that, though outside of completely open view, one dude was pouring water over another dude’s ass.